Brad Richards tied it for the Rangers with 2:57 remaining in regulation after New York blew an early 2-0 lead and fell behind already-eliminated Carolina.

Derek Stepan and Derick Brassard staked the Rangers to the lead in the first period, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 18 shots for New York, which jumped over the rival Islanders and into seventh place in the East with one game left.

Jiri Tlusty had two goals and Tuomo Ruutu also scored for Carolina, which played without injured forward Alexander Semin. He sat out after sustaining a concussion that will also sideline him for the season finale at Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Sens book playoff ticket with OT winWASHINGTON -- Sergei Gonchar scored 47 seconds into overtime, Erik Karlsson set up Ottawa's first goal in his sooner-than-anticipated return from a torn Achilles tendon, and the Senators clinched a playoff berth by beating the Washington Capitals 2-1 Thursday night.

Craig Anderson made 19 saves. The only shot that got past him was Alex Ovechkin's NHL-leading 32nd goal, which tied the game 8 minutes into the third period.

Jakob Silfverberg deflected in Karlsson's shot 12:35 into the second period against the Southeast Division champion Capitals, who had nothing at stake. They already are locked into the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The overtime wins by the Senators and New York Rangers eliminated the Winnipeg Jets from the playoff chase (see full recap).

-The Associated Press

Wings inch closer to playoff berthDETROIT -- Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and two assists and the Detroit Red Wings moved a step closer to their 22nd straight playoff appearance with a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.

The Red Wings, who moved into seventh place in the Western Conference, need one more point to secure their spot in the postseason. They own the longest current playoff streak in North American professional sports.

Detroit has one regular-season game remaining.

Johan Franzen had a goal and an assist, and Valtteri Filppula, Patrick Eaves and Justin Abdelkader also scored for Detroit. Jimmy Howard stopped 20 shots.

Mike Fisher and Craig Smith each had a goal and an assist for Nashville, which got 33 saves from Chris Mason.

The Red Wings scored three times in the second period to take a 4-2 lead (see full recap).

This time, Steve Mason bailed out by Flyers' teammates

This time, Steve Mason bailed out by Flyers' teammates

Steve Mason was not his sharpest Thursday night and he's the first to admit it.

"There's nights where you're not feeling as sharp as you'd like to," Mason said. "This is a situation the guys in front never quit. They earned the two points for sure."

Mason yielded five goals for the third time this season, but made enough saves to secure the Flyers' seventh straight win, a 6-5 victory over the Oilers at the Wells Fargo Center.

The win streak is the longest the Flyers have had since Dec. 2-15, 2011, when "Mr. Universe" Ilya Bryzgalov was their goaltender. Mason finished with 28 saves.

"The guys bailed me out," Mason said, "When your goalie is not making the saves that you need, but the guys keep battling in front, from a personal standpoint, it's huge to see."

Making his 16th start in the Flyers' last 17 games, Mason appeared to show signs of fatigue against Edmonton. He's started the last six games, winning all six.

His current six-game win streak is a career-high, and the five goals allowed Thursday is the first time he's allowed more than two goals during this current streak.

Entering Thursday, Mason was 5-0 with a 1.74 goals-against average and .947 save percentage in his previous five starts, and 8-3-1 with a 2.11 GAA and .930 save percentage since Nov. 12. So Thursday is just a small blemish on Mason's impressive résumé of late.

"I didn't think he looked tired," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. "This win's a little bit indicative of the type of team we have. A couple nights ago, Mason was the best player. He picked up a lot of guys around him and tonight maybe wasn't his best.

"But it was pretty good. The guys battled hard. They picked up some of the slack. That's what it takes. Every guy's not going to be at their best every night.

"You'd like them to be, and I know the guys want to be at that level, but when one piece isn't working, the other part has to pick it up."

The Flyers' offensive outburst came two days after Mason stole two points against the Florida Panthers, and nine days after the goalie stole another two points against Boston.

Twice on Thursday the Flyers faced two-goal deficits, and both times they found a way to erase them. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it's the first time in Flyers' history they were able to win a game in which they were down two goals twice.

"Once we got it to 5-4," Mason said, "I tried to lock it down as best I could. There's nights where you're not feeling as sharp as you'd like to. … Coming back in a couple of days, from a personal standpoint, I got to be more sharp."

After going falling behind 2-0, the Flyers tied it, 2-2, with three goals in 72 seconds in the second period, the quickest three-goal burst since Feb. 14, 2009, vs. the Islanders.

Then, the Flyers fell behind 5-3 before Voracek sparked a three-goal third period with his 10th of the year at 6:31. Claude Giroux tallied his second of the game, and Michael Raffl pushed the Flyers to victory with his sixth of the season at 18:31 of the final stanza.

"It's a great feeling to come back from behind," Flyers rookie defenseman Ivan Provorov said. "You never want to be in that position, but that's the way it sometimes go. We stuck with it and came from behind and won the game. It's a great effort."

Of the five goals allowed Thursday, the first goal Mason allowed was the only one that can be pinned on the netminder. It was not a great goal to give up, on the second shot of the game, too. Afterward, he said the read was the backdoor play, but Leon Draisaitl slipped it through Mason's five-hole for his fifth goal in as many games.

"Some nights you can be better than the other nights," Provorov said. "And that's what the team's all about. We play for each other. If someone has a mistake, we all help him out and play for each other. That's why we win games."

"That's how you become a great team," Voracek, who tied a career-high with four points, said. "Mase playing the last six games the way he did, it wasn't his night.

"We came big for him. It's how you get into the playoffs, and it's how you have success in the playoffs. It's a good thing we won the game and get rolling now."

"We won the game, so that's why it was fun," Bellemare said. "Win or lose … maybe it would have changed my mind but it was a heck of a game from our team. I got to play against him.

"Everyone knows what kind of player he is, what kind of speed he brings to the table. I just tried to be as close as possible to him and be annoying and cut off his speed."

Of course, McDavid did add to his NHL-leading point total with two more Thursday. He now has 39 points in 29 games, nine more points than Crosby, Nikita Kucherov and Tyler Seguin.

And, yes, McDavid did get the best of Bellemare and MacDonald shorthanded. Sandwiched along the sideboards to the left of Steve Mason, McDavid won the battle, shoveled the puck to Mark Letestu, who then found Andrej Sekera to tie the game, 3-3, in the second period.

The key, however, was even strength. In a game that featured 11 goals, the Flyers handled Edmonton at even strength scoring. The Oilers had two goals 5-on-5, to the Flyers' five.

In years' past, the Flyers haven't been great at 5-on-5. This season, however, they appear to have turned a corner at even strength. Last season, they finished 22nd in the league with 133 goals at 5-on-5, but thus far, they're a top-5 scoring team 5-on-5 this year.

Eliminating McDavid at 5-on-5 was a major factor there and credit goes to Bellemare.

"He did a great job," Hakstol said. "He and his linemates played a good hockey game. They checked well, but they were out there working and doing good things with the puck as well. But I thought, overall, they played a real good 200-foot hockey game, shift after shift."

With Sean Couturier sidelined with a left knee injury, Hakstol has entrusted Bellemare as the Flyers' checking-line center deployed against opposing teams' top lines.

When did Bellemare find out he was going up against McDavid? The 31-year-old said Hakstol came to him Tuesday night after the Florida game and told him he should rest Wednesday.

"Before the game, I knew I was going to be on the ice every time he was on the ice," Bellemare said. "Obviously, it's a big boost of confidence when you know the coach is going to trust you against one of the best players in the world.

"I really try not to think about it that much. I try to take every game at a time, but I'm happy he trusted me on that assignment."

Had Couturier been healthy for Thursday's game, the game plan would have been called for Bellemare to play his usual fourth-line minutes and Couturier assigned to McDavid.

Bellemare has been asked to play in different roles during his time with the Flyers. Coming over from Europe last season, the Le Blanc-Mesnil, France, native has proved to be an effective NHL role player for the orange and black, which he embraces.

"You've got to have all of the little roles," he said, "and some nights, he's going to ask me to play this kind of role and I'm going to take it.

"Some nights, he's going to ask me to maybe play against another line and try to feed my winger. Whatever coach needs me to do. At the end of the day, I'm going to do it."

In a game in which he'll be praised for slowing down one of the game's elite, Bellemare also snapped a 30-game goalless drought with his first of the season in the second period.

During a three-goal outburst in one minute and 12 seconds, Bellemare tied the game, 2-2, at 13:24 — 53 seconds after Mark Streit's goal and 19 seconds before Giroux's go-ahead marker. Bellemare sniped Oilers goalie Jonas Gustavsson with a well-placed wrister over the netminder's right shoulder from the left circle, a highly skilled shot.

"I don't have to score the goal to be happy about the game if we win the game,” Bellemare said. “It's been this way. Maybe in the beginning of the season, I was thinking a little bit about it. I'm getting the shots to the net and sometimes the bounces don't go your way, but coach keeps telling me to play the right way and it's going to come.

"That's pretty much what I've been doing the last 15 games. I'm just trying to focus on playing the right way. When you think about it the least, that's when it comes.

"And tonight, that was the last thing I was thinking about — scoring goals. And it came."